M. P. Jayaraj

M. P. Jayaraj (1946–1989) was the first ever don of Bangalore underworld. His reign was during the 1970s and 1980s. He was a hobbyist wrestler from his childhood who seriously practiced at Annayappa Garadi in Thigalarpet.

He was brought into forefront of Bangalore underworld by M. D. Nataraj, the then son-in-law of the Chief Minister of Karnataka Devaraj Urs.^[1] Legend has it that Devaraj Urs was so impressed from the selection of his son-in-law, that the only question he asked him was what caste he belonged to and when he got the answer, Jayaraj was made president of the "Indira Brigade" – the youth wing of Congress party. He was not only a dreaded don but also helped the poor and the needy.

Political and underworld career

During the 1970s, the politics in Karnataka was undergoing an immense change, the backward classes were emerging to the forefront in all the spheres of life and so was in politics led by Devaraj Urs. Devaraj Urs was a great visionary and helped the backward classes and dalits through his government programmes and as always there was opposition to these programmes by the forward caste people. To quell this opposition for the upliftment of poor and backward classes, Mr Devaraj Urs used both legal and illegal means, and one of the illegal means was the use of the underworld to quell the protesters and create fear in them.

M. P. Jayaraj ruled the Bangalore underworld throughout the 1970s under the patronage of M. D. Nataraj, but after he was sentenced for 10 years in jail for assaulting a person called Thigallarapete Gopi in court premises, his hold on the underworld began to loosen, while he was in jail Devaraj Urs died, when he came out of it Bangalore was taken over by the new dons Kotwal Ramachandra and Oil Kumar. In the ensuing struggle to reign over Bangalore, Kothwal Ramachandra was bumped off by Jayaraj by giving support to Agni Shridhar, Varadharaja Nayak and Bacchan. Death of Kotwal Ramachandra is very well depicted in Kannada movie Aa Dinagalu. Jayaraj was immensely popular with people and ran a news paper "Ghareebi Hatao" targeting Janata Dal politicians and police. Because of his close relations with Congress party, he had to face the wrath of Janata Dal who were in power in mid-1980s. He was also not in good relations with police as he openly blasted them on Rasheed Murder Case^[2] due to which Banglore police requested Muthappa Rai to kill Jayraj.

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